The Long Island native, who fought at the Mecca of boxing in the Golden Gloves as an amateur, will make his debut as a professional there on the undercard of WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire's fight against Omar Narvaez.

Monaghan was last in action on October 1 at the Boardwalk Hill in Atlantic City when he stopped the tough and durable Kentrell Claiborne in the fourth round of their fight. After taking the weekend off after the win he was back in the gym the following Tuesday.

The boxer is happy with how training has gone over the past few weeks.

“I wasn’t really thrilled with my last performance,” he added. “I got involved in a brawl. I have been working on my defense and my head movement.”

Monaghan went on the say that he and Pietrantonio, who is from Youngstown, Ohio, both fought on the same card at B.B. King’s in Manhattan last October.

That night, Monaghan says that the 34-year-old, who is trained by Kelly Pavlik’s trainer, Jack Loew, went down a few times early in the fight, but he kept on getting up and went the distance. Monaghan and his trainer, Joe Higgins, expect him to provide a similar spirited challenge this weekend.

“I don’t think he can take my power," continued Monaghan, saying that Pietrantonio fought a lot of his career in the super middleweight division.

Monaghan has been sparring with amateur heavyweight Joe Williams from Far Rockaway, who is trying to qualify for the Olympics, to prepare for the fight. He planned to wrap up the contact work on Tuesday.

Monaghan, who brought a lot of support with him to Atlantic City, has already sold 300 tickets for the fight and is waiting to get some more to fill the demand for those who want to see him in action.

At the moment Monaghan is not tied to a promotional contract, but that freedom has allowed him the opportunity to box on different promoters’ events.

“Out of nine fights seven of them have been with Lou DiBella,” added Monaghan. The Nonito Donaire card is promoted by Top Rank.

Monaghan hopes to stay busy for the rest of the year and would like to fight on the undercard of Matthew Macklin’s December debut in New York.

Speaking of Macklin, the Irish Voice contacted manager Lou DiBella’s office to find out the latest on when his next assignment might happen.

Professional light middleweight Kevin Rooney (2-1), who also works as director of public relations at DiBella Entertainment, said they were still finalizing a date for December, likely mid-December, and that things should be decided in the coming weeks.

Rooney himself was slated to be in action on a card at the Tropicana in Atlantic City this Saturday night, but a cut that re-opened in his October 1 loss to Daniel Lugo has ruled him out.